Don't Cry Over Fallen Pastries
by RazleBerry
Summary: 10 year-old Adrien Agreste's only friend is Chloe Bourgeois, and when he sees Chloe bullying a little girl with bouncy pigtails, he starts to wonder if he really knows her at all. *Reposted*
A/N: Okay so this uploaded wrong the first time _and_ there was a typo in the title. Basically I'm a mess. I debated not reposting this at all but eh here it is.

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"Adrien, Chloe's at the door!" called Nathalie from downstairs.

His heart beating rapidly, Adrien glanced one last time at his outfit in the mirror, hoping that a black T-shirt and jeans was considered 'normal'. Nervously wiping his sweaty palms on his jeans, he left the bathroom and started to walk down the stairs.

"Adrikins! There you are!" squeaked Chloe excitedly. Seeing the unfamiliar girl beside her, he gulped, raising his right hand and waving awkwardly. When Adrien reached the bottom of the stair, Chloe looked at him proudly as she started to introduce him to her friend.

"This is Sabrina, the friend I was telling you about. Sabrina, this is Adrien Agreste, the _model_ ," she gestured to the small girl on her left as she spoke, exaggerating the last word loftily.

Sabrina gave him a smile so wide that Adrien could see her green eyes brighten excitedly, even behind her round glasses. He tried to mimic her excitement, but found it difficult to suppress his nausea and racing pulse.

Because of his modelling career, Adrien had always been homeschooled. Even though he was ten years-old now, the only kid he'd ever spoken to was Chloe Bourgeois, because his father was a friend of her family's. He desperately wanted to be like any other kid, but Adrien had no idea what an average kid did.

 _Oh shoot! Why am I just standing here staring at her? Okay, Adrien, just say something normal. Something normal…_

"N-nice to meet you," Adrien tried to smile as he said it, but his face felt so awkward that he was sure it looked more like a grimace. If it did, Sabrina didn't notice because her face reddened and her only response was a high-pitched giggle.

"C'mon Adrikins, we were just about to go to the park so I could show Sabrina the new scooter Daddy bought me. It has six speeds and three different bells!" Chloe spoke haughtily, but a hint of vulnerability was in her voice, as if she was terrified he'd reject her invitation.

"It's so cool that your dad bought you a scooter! Let's go try it out!" exclaimed Adrien, a hint of resentment in his voice, although it was almost concealed by his excitement. As Chloe and Sabrina headed for the door, he glanced back into the house. He imagined his father had bought him a scooter, bringing it out to the backyard to teach him how to use all of the fancy settings. Shaking his head, Adrien chastised himself for even thinking it. His father didn't do those things because he was too busy with work, but it didn't mean he didn't care. Besides, Adrien had Nathalie to take care of him.

 _My father definitely cares about me._

 _…Right?_

"Adrien? Are you coming?" asked Chloe worriedly from the door.

"Yeah! Sorry I guess I just spaced out"

As the three of them walked together down the sidewalk, Chloe gabbed on and on about one subject or another. Sabrina listened intently and nodded periodically, while Adrien payed no attention, enjoying the droning sound of her voice because it reminded him that he wasn't alone today. Having spent most of his life alone in a sprawling mansion, the sound of friendly voices chatting and having fun made Adrien feel content and like he belonged somewhere, for once.

Looking up, he was interrupted from his thoughts when he noticed a petite girl with bouncy pig-tails walking towards them. She was tugging a wagon full of something moderately colourful and she seemed to be struggling, tripping over her own feet periodically.

"Hey look who it is!" shouted Chloe nastily. Handing her scooter to Sabrina, she rushed forward towards the girl, Sabrina following dutifully behind.

"Marinette Dupain-Cheng!" she taunts, then points to the wagon, "What, are those disgusting things the pastries you dropped? Your punishment for screwing everything up, like you always do, is to wheel them to the dumpster?"

" _No_ ," sniped Marinette bitterly, a scowl forming on her face, "I'm delivering an order to Mr. Blanchard. He's having a big dinner party next week, not that it's any of _your_ business!"

" _Of course_ it's my business! My family is obviously invited and we will not be eating baguette that looks like it belongs in a soup kitchen!"

Chloe lifted her left foot subtly as she was talking, suddenly stamping down on the front corner of the wagon, causing it to tilt and then flip over. Marinette stared in horror as pastries slid to the front right corner before toppling onto the ground, one by one. As Chloe watched with a satisfied smirk on her face, icing splashed all over the ground. The main piece for the party, a three-tiered angel food cake, fell last, each layer falling on top of the previous one.

Adrien took in the scene before him and was horrified, unable to believe Chloe's actions.

 _It really didn't look like an accident, but Chloe would never do that to someone on purpose, right?_

Tears prickled in Marinette's eyes as she took in the disastrous scene. Suddenly, Sabrina wound her left foot back and kicked Marinette hard in the back of the knee, causing her to tumble right onto the fallen cake and sea of various pastries.

Sharp giggled rang out through the air as Sabrina and Chloe stepped gingerly over the fallen desserts and onto the clean part of the sidewalk. They started to walk away, but then Chloe stopped.

Turning around, she called out to Adrien;

"Hey, Adrikins, aren't you coming?"

"U-um no, I think I… I'll just go home…" he sputtered, still completely in shock from what had just happened.

 _Why would Chloe do something like that? It must've been on purpose, she didn't even offer to help clean up!_

Chloe turned quickly on her heel and stalked away angrily, snapping her fingers for Sabrina to follow. When Adrien looked back to the pastries, he noticed that Marinette hadn't moved since Sabrina had pushed her down. The poor girl was lying in a heap, covered in icing and powdered sugar, weeping silently. Adrien walked over to her and extended his arm.

"Need some help?" he said with a forced smile.

Marinette looked up at him, bewildered, but grabbed his arm anyway and pulled herself up. As she stood, pastries fell from her clothing, which was now covered in icing and filling. She took in the scene dejectedly, then turned to look at Adrien,

"Aren't you Chloe's friend?" she said bitterly. It sounded like an accusation. Adrien ran a hand through his hair nervously, causing it to stick up strangely before falling back to its original position.

"Um... Y-yeah I am. I didn't think she would… I-I guess I don't really know her," he finished sadly. Chloe was his only friend, and he couldn't believe she would do something so mean. He didn't understand why she would want to make someone feel helpless and alone.

 _I always thought Chloe had my back, but if she does things like this, how can I really trust her? Does she even care about me at all?_

Suddenly, Adrien felt more alone than he ever had before. His family wasn't really there for him, but he'd always had Chloe. Now, it felt like he didn't really know her, like their friendship was all a lie.

Marinette seemed to sense his feelings because she looked up at him and said;

"Hey, don't worry! I can be your friend!"

Adrien looked at her and smiled, his first genuine smile in a long time. Marinette, although a complete mess, her hair whitened by the powdered sugar, her clothes a disaster, and her face stained with tears, smiled right back at him.

"Let's get all of this cleaned up," he said as he began to pick up the salvageable pastries and place them delicately into the wagon.

Once they were done, Marinette looked at the pitiful amount of pastries that had been successfully saved from the wreckage, and sighed.

"I'm so clumsy, I always do things like this. What am I gonna do about the order, Adrien?"

He told her that it wasn't her fault and that they'd figure it out, but first she'd have to clean herself up.

"Why don't you come to my house?" he said, a little excitedly, "I know Nathalie could help fix your hair and clothes." She agreed, and together they walked down the sidewalk, wheeling a wagon full of pathetic pastries.

When they arrived, Marinette was awed by the enormous mansion. Adrien called for Nathalie and she was speechless when, instead of Chloe and her friend Sabrina, she saw an icing-covered Marinette.

"Who's this?" she asked in confusion.

"A new friend," answered Adrien, a smile creeping onto his face at the word friend, "I was hoping you could help her get cleaned up?"

Nathalie brought Marinette to her room, where she gave Marinette some of her old clothes to change into while she washed the messy ones. Seeing as Marinette was a petite ten-year old and Nathalie was a grown woman, the clothes were woefully large. After putting Marinette's messy clothes in the washing machine, they walked back down the stairs together, Marinette tripping periodically on her pant legs, to meet Adrien.

He sat in the living room with them as Nathalie brushed the icing and pastry out of Marinette's hair, joking around and laughing in a way that Adrien never had before. When Nathalie was done, she left and Marinette just sat with Adrien on the couch, waiting for her clothes to dry.

"Are you rich?" she blurted suddenly, blushing at her blunt comment, "I-I'm sorry! I – "

Adrien cut her off,

"It's completely fine! And yeah… I guess I am rich."

"That's so cool!" Marinette exclaimed, "I bet you and your family go on vacations all the time! I love going on vacations with my mom and dad, but we can't really afford it. This one time, we went to China to visit my grandparents, and it was so much fun!" She babbled on, and her excitement made Adrien smile, but he really couldn't relate to what she was saying.

"My dad and I don't really go on vacations together," Adrien replied, "We're all a little busy around here. He always has a lot of work to do, so he can't really leave, I have modelling jobs all the time…" he trailed off.

"So you're a model…" she stated thoughtfully, "hey, I guess that's why you look familiar to me! Your life is so interesting!"

He laughed, self-consciously rubbing the back of his neck.

"I guess so…"

"Marinette! Your clothes are dry!" called Nathalie from upstairs.

"Oh no!" said Marinette worriedly, "I still haven't figured out what to do about the pastries!"

"Don't worry," replied Adrien, desperate to assuage her fears, "maybe I can come back to the bakery with you and we can make them together. We'll be done in no time!"

She smiled gratefully at him as she ran upstairs to change. When she returned, they grabbed her red wagon and opened the ornate front door, Adrien calling out, "bye Nathalie!" as he shut the front door behind them.

They walked down the sidewalk, this time with Marinette leading the way, in comfortable silence.

"So, your parents weren't home? Was your dad at work?" asked Marinette, breaking the silence.

"He was home," started Adrien, "but he was working."

"He doesn't care that you just left?" asked Marinette again, a little incredulous, "he doesn't even know where you're going."

"Yeah, it's fine," said Adrien, "As long as I don't miss a photo shoot, he doesn't really care where I go," he paused, "well, as long as it's not school…"

"What do you mean?"

"I'm homeschooled," replied Adrien again, "I've always wanted to go to public school so I could make friends and talk to people my own age. I mean, Chloe's great… or actually… I'm not so sure about that anymore…. But I just wanted to feel what it was like to be normal."

"Have you told your dad that?" asked Marinette, ignoring his comment about Chloe.

"Yes, but he doesn't listen," Adrien sighed, shaking his head, "I'm sorry, could we talk about something else?"

She looked at him sadly, "it's okay, we're actually here anyway."

She walked up to a small building, on the sign above the door was written ' _Boulangerie_ ' in gold script. The first floor had mostly glass windows, allowing passersby to see the beautiful pastries and delicious breads inside.

"Wow!" exclaimed Adrien, but Marinette was embarrassed at the size of her home compared to his sprawling mansion.

"It's really not that great…" she said, blushing and looking at the ground, but his reply brought a bright smile to her face.

"I think it's amazing" he said honestly.

They walked in together and were greeted by Marinette's mother at the door.

"Hi!" she said brightly, "you must be a friend of Marinette's, you can call me Sabine."

He smiled anxiously, "I'm Adrien," she was being friendly now, but Adrien knew that she would be furious when Marinette told her about the ruined pastries.

Marinette nervously told Sabine about the incident with Mr. Blanchard's order, apologizing every third word and explaining that she would definitely make replacement pastries herself. Instead of getting angry or saying something rude like Adrien expected her to, Sabine just smiled and told Marinette that she would help her make more pastries to replace the ones that had been ruined. Adrien couldn't believe she was being so nice.

 _Parents are supposed to yell when things go wrong, aren't they? They're supposed to get upset and tell you that you really screwed up this time._

 _Aren't they?_

Still a little confused, Adrien joined in with Marinette and her mother, and helped to make more pastries. They chatted and laughed, and soon enough Adrien had forgotten all about Sabine's 'strange' reaction. Adrien had never baked before, so he continually messed up, making the cookies too big, putting too much flour in the cake, but Sabine and Marinette were endlessly patient, and all they did was laugh when something went wrong. With three pairs of hands working quickly, or, at least two pairs working quickly, they finished in under an hour.

A little disheveled, and completely covered in flour, Adrien was smiling so wide he thought his ears might pop off. As he waved goodbye to Marinette and her mother, he thought to himself;

 _Disneyland has nothing on them._

 _'Tom & Sabine Boulangerie' is truly the Happiest Place on Earth._


End file.
